Aspen, a South
African pharmaceutical company, has announced that all conditions have been met
for it to acquire the pharmaceutical business of Australian-based Sigma Pharmaceuticals
Limited.

The acquisition was approved following a meeting of Sigma
shareholders held on 14 January 2011. The effective date of change of ownership
is 31 January 2011 and will position Aspen as
the leading pharmaceutical company in Australia by volume of scripts
generated.

Stephen Saad, Aspen’s Group
Chief Executive, said “Aspen
is excited about this acquisition which enables the Group to accelerate growth
in its Australian business and also to stimulate expansion plans into the
broader Asia Pacific region. Aspen
has already demonstrated its ability to supply high quality products at
competitive prices across more than 100 worldwide territories. We have
confidence in our Australian management team to leverage Aspen’s
world-class procurement, manufacturing and distribution capabilities to ensure
the expanded Aspen business delivers growing value in Australia.”

In 2010 Aspen
announced that it had reached a formal agreement to acquire Sigma’s pharmaceutical
business on a debt-free basis for a cash consideration of AUD 900 million. The
purchase consideration is approximately ZAR 6 148 million, based on an AUD/ZAR
exchange rate of 0.1464 as at 13 January 2011. The transaction was however
subject to a number of conditions precedent which have now been fulfilled.